Most people in the world today think democracy and gender equality are good, and that violence and wealth inequality are bad. But most people who lived during the 10,000 years before the nineteenth century thought just the opposite. Drawing on archaeology, anthropology, biology, and history, Ian Morris, author of the best-selling Why the West Rules?for... more...

This lively and elegant book by the acclaimed historian Jonathan D. Spence reconstructs an extraordinary epsiode in the early intercourse between China and Europe. It is the story of John Hu, a lowly but devout Chinese Catholic who in 1722 accompanied a Jesuit missionary on a journey to France?a journey that ended with Hu's confinement in a lunatic... more...

?Spence draws upon his extensive knowledge of Chinese politics and culture to create an illuminating picture of Mao. . . . Superb.? ( Chicago Tribune ) From humble origins in the provinces, Mao Zedong rose to absolute power, unifying with an iron fist a vast country torn apart by years of weak leadership, colonialism, and war. This sharply drawn... more...

?A milestone in Western studies of China.? (John K. Fairbank) In this masterful, highly original approach to modern Chinese history, Jonathan D. Spence shows us the Chinese revolution through the eyes of its most articulate participants?the writers, historians, philosophers, and insurrectionists who shaped and were shaped by the turbulent events... more...

?Splendid . . . One could not imagine a better subject than Zhan Dai for Spence.? ( The New Republic ) Celebrated China scholar Jonathan Spence vividly brings to life seventeenth-century China through this biography of Zhang Dai, recognized as one of the finest historians and essayists of the Ming dynasty. Born in 1597, Zhang Dai was forty-seven... more...